Janissary

Hello, I have made some final touches.

Looks very nice Honza. You have nailed all the difficult seams nicely. The preshading effect looks good after the main colors. My only question would be the seamline of the windshield, someone once told me that those seams need to be filled and the test for it is the fingernail: if it catches it, need to work on it more. Do you think that is really the case? (I am asking this as this is perhaps the most painful step in building. I tend to screw up the clear parts while sanding).

Thank you Mario and Jin. When I first started, this is what I had in mind: http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-phot...7/6/1222673.jpg http://www.hvkk.tsk.tr/PageSub/CokluOrtam/...tografi/109.jpg but I changed the plan in the middle of the build. I am contemplating perhaps removing the IFF but I may just leave it as it is, despite it sticking out like a sore thumb. Jin, I think your 1/48 Block 20 and Block 30 builds are still the state-of-the-art when it comes to viper weathering. I study those a lot. Very inspirational.

Here are a few more pictures. I airbrushed future to select regions, applied the decals and an oil wash. The most difficult part was to clean the excess wash.

Thank you very much all. Periklis, I do shading by adding a little bit of white and black and sometimes smoke colors to the main colors and thinning them a lot. I appy this with a 0.3mm airbrush (crowncap off) at ~10-15psi. It takes a while to get the hang of it but it actually is not too difficult. Qian, you are right about the panel, I learned that also recently. But I think it is too late now for me to fix it. I have been working on a few things. I did not like the wheels so stripped the paint and repainted. Also decalled and washed the fuel tanks. I then tried to do some more shading.

I will be there too! Looking forward to it.

Very impressive build. It looks very refined with all the details and fantastic painting you have done. The only thing that detracts from this otherwise gorgeous build is the nose cone issue (not your fault at all). I wish Kinetic fixed that. The other minor thing was the 'lift here' signs on the fuel tanks, I thought they ran from one side to the other ( perhaps IAF does it the other way?). All in all, an excellent build and photography.

Hello, I have been working on painting. I have done some shading as well but I am luke warm about it. I have a few more steps to go before I can move to decaling and washing.

Anders, the cushions you made look very nice. Did you use 2 part epoxy or something like that?

Good to see you back Honza. I just got mine a few days ago but I am too excited to even go near it. I will be watching this closely.

Hello, if you give the canopy an alcohol bath (put it in alcohol and clean it with a thick brush), the future should come off. You will probably be back to square one though as the paint will likely come off as well. Then, you may have to go through the usual steps of future dip (if you do this), masking, painting etc. Not sure if you are looking for a quick fix but at least that what I'd do. Hope it helps.

Thank you all. I have finally applied some primer. I used surfacer 1200, followed by some touchups. I then went over the surfaces with #2000 sandpaper. I then used Tamiya XF-20 so recheck some sections. As you may see, there are a number of seamlines and panel lines I should have done a better job with (both bottom and top) but it is just taking too long. I have decided to continue with painting. Hopefully the weathering will help suppress some of those issues. I hope I can pull this off.

Thank you very much for your comments. Qian, yes, I am using the IFF you have sent me together with those Jason has sent me. The parachute will be used in another block but I already have plans for that. Mario, the white paint is latex paint I got from Home Depot. The key I think with that dump method is that the surface has to be very clean (free of dust, oils) and it should not be too shiny. A little bit of grit is necessary for good coverage. And yes, I plan to make this a Turkish bird. I have been working on the external pieces and the main body. I tried to make a few pods I have seen in

When I first saw it, I thought the weathering was a little bit too much. But after looking at some pictures and reading others' explanations on some other sites, I understand it is very accurate. Congratulations! The only thing I was curious about (and this occurred to me when I first saw the pictures) is that for some reason I cannot articulate, the paint seemed a little too thick around some places like the glove vanes. Nonetheless, it is extremely subtle and perhaps now even the case in reality (just my misperception from the image). Overall, a superb job. I wish I had half the skills and t

Awesome. I have been coming back to look at the pictures a few times a day. Very well done.

Thank you Mark and Steelbreeze. I used the kit's intakes. The compressor faces you see are scavenged from a Hasegawa 1/72 F-14. I cut one down the middle and installed in the two intakes. Hence quite inaccurate, but just adds some depth to an otherwise flat wall I guess.

It looks really beautiful. In my opinion, models with hi-viz camos are much more difficult to build realistically compared to low-viz ones (hi-viz risking a toy-like look). But you did a really great job with this. It looks very convincing to me.

I'd love to know the answer to that as well.

Honza, so nice to see your work again. I have been looking forward to your models for inspiration! Please do not leave modeling. You owe it to us

I tried to finish the nozzle with some washes, matt coat, and pastels. Also, put together the major pieces. It took me about 15 days for me to come to this point. I started many phases from scratch multiple times along the way like the intake, cockpit and the nozzle. There is some puttying and sanding I will need to do on the body. Hope I can do that without losing too much detail.... The next set of pictures will probably be after priming. Thanks for watching!

I tried to add some detail to the nozzle using aluminum foil. It didn't work as well as I hoped it would but I guess it is better than nothing (still looks like a wrinkled table cloth to me). The front view of the intake. Not too bad but nothing spectacular either. Still the seam line is visible and the border between the grey lip and the white intake is not super sharp.

After painting the intake, I attached the surrounding pieces. I did not like how they joined together so I stripped all the paint in alcohol and started from scratch. To later insert the support rod, I removed it from the top following some surgery. I also tried to rethread the tires after losing all the details to sanding. The cockpit was painted with XF-19 and the panels with Tamiya semigloss black. I applied a light grey wash between the panels, a black wash in the cockpit, and did some drybrushing.

Hello, I have been inspired by Viperbite's recent great set of F-16s (linky) so decided to get one. I have been eagerly awaiting the 'D' model from Tamiya to no avail :) So, decided with the regular one. I am also very impressed by the following builds: http://www.scalespot.com/onthebench/f16c/build.htm http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....howtopic=179065 http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....amiya&st=40

Pompeo, what a great review and modeling. I will be watching this closely. HB, you win, I've given in. Where is my credit card....